1. The cameraperson positioned themselves in such a way as to create a confrontation. If I was fortunate enough to be in a position to get video of one of my favorite players I might try calling out for their attention and asking them if they have a minute before simply stepping in front of them. To be able to palm a camera, that camera has to be placed within arm’s reach. I don’t see why the cameraperson couldn’t have just allowed their “idol” a little personal bubble.

2. The camera wasn’t destroyed or broken or demolished – they were able to shoot video of them walking away without interruption that was of the same quality as before the incident. Also, the cameraperson clearly never fell over. Whatever “bruises and contusions” they may have suffered simply could not be that bad. I participate in full-contact sitck fighting so I know from bruises and what happened there just isn’t that rough and tumble. Going back to the first point, walking in front of a group of athletes in full stride with a camera in their face is not exactly a strategy for escaping unscathed.

We would all love it if famous people cared about us the way we care about them. We’d love for Jennifer Aniston to ask us who she should be dating or to have either half of Brangelina invite us to sit with them over coffee to give them relationship advice. We’d like the LeBrons, Tigers, Ovies and Favres of the world to be overjoyed every time a fan barges in front of them asking for a photo, video, autograph or interview. We believe that because we pay to see them do what they do and they make a LOT of money doing it that somehow they owe us for our fandom. Sure these folks are fortunate that they happen to have found success at a job that pays well. But that doesn’t mean that I have a right to invade their space whenever I want to. My taxes pay the garbage man’s salary, that doesn’t give me the right to hop on the truck next to him with a camera while he’s working or to bug him for interviews if I see him at the grocery store.

Our choice of entertainment, idols, etc. are just that, Choices. I don’t have to watch the Caps, I don’t have to go to the movies. Just because that’s what I choose to do with my time and money doesn’t mean the people who entertain me owe me anything beyond the service they’ve already provided – that game, that film, that TV episode. Maybe better than some form of counseling would be a talk from Ted about good customer service.

Semi-unrelated, the one thing I’d really like to see Ovie improve on is his shootout skill. It just seems so weird to me that a guy who can score such ridiculous goals can’t finish a one-on-one consistently. Maybe if they put two defenders on him it would help. It’s these kinds of pressure situations where so far Crosby has really outshone him and that’s what makes people think of Crosby as a better leader and better player.

$0.02

]]>By: Doughttp://www.russianmachineneverbreaks.com/2010/03/01/spelunking-in-the-echo-chamber-with-michael-wilbon/#comment-865
Tue, 02 Mar 2010 13:44:07 +0000http://www.russianmachineneverbreaks.com/?p=2076#comment-865Great summary. So OV is “out of control” per Wilbon. For pushing a camera out of his face after a tough loss in the Olympics? Sounds like someone who is focused “solely on leading his team to victory” and is pretty darn PO’d about losing. If Wilbon bothered to watch a Caps game now and then, which he freely admits he does not, then he’d see a guy who it focused on winning and leading his team…as evidenced by his record since wearing the C on his chest.

In the end, I dont think this article was written to raise Wilbon’s Q-rating. I dont think he cares about that given he’s got the top rated show on ESPN. No, I think this article was a poke in the eye at DC sports fans, Caps fans, who dare to think of OV as the best player in the league and can do no wrong. Wilbon always rants about Skins fans who can’t and won’t see anthing beyond the burgundy and gold and who think the hometown team is the only team in town.

Unfortunately, we all dont have jobs which give us the time, money and access to every team and sport in the country. Wilbon does and he can use that to enlighten fans about issues that are beyond what we all can see here in DC. That’s great when it come to the NBA or NFL, leagues Wilbon is plugged into and follows. He can’t, however, apply the same analysis to a sport he barely follows based upon watching a couple of olympic hockey games. If he does, he’s no better than the myopic DC sports fans he so often rails against.

@Victoria, I want Wilbon & co. talking hockey all the time. I just want them to do it in a less boneheaded way.

]]>By: Chrishttp://www.russianmachineneverbreaks.com/2010/03/01/spelunking-in-the-echo-chamber-with-michael-wilbon/#comment-859
Tue, 02 Mar 2010 04:12:29 +0000http://www.russianmachineneverbreaks.com/?p=2076#comment-8596. Not Sidney Crosby
]]>By: Victoria (WashCapsRock)http://www.russianmachineneverbreaks.com/2010/03/01/spelunking-in-the-echo-chamber-with-michael-wilbon/#comment-858
Tue, 02 Mar 2010 02:01:05 +0000http://www.russianmachineneverbreaks.com/?p=2076#comment-858Everyone (Wilbon) needs to cut Ovechkin some slack. The poor guy had a less than mediocre experience in Vancouver. Sure maybe he should have made himself more available to the press but we don’t know what the Russian Federation imposed as far as rules on the Russian athletes. No, he shouldn’t have shoved the person with the camera but geez wouldn’t you go over the edge having people in your face all the time?

Ovechkin is an amazing athlete. So to Wilbon, I say leave the hockey coverage to Tarik. To Ovi and the rest of the Caps I say rock on!